OP asked which carriers were likely to give him the "most impressive experience".

SQ (very limited F availability), NH and OZ are all widely praised -- start by seeing what's available for your dates (and don't underestimate the importance of limiting connections and overall trip duration). For some dates (especially close in) you may also see LH or other very acceptable options via Europe.

Thanks for the input so far - I checked out a few of them and LH does look excellent.

I guess the other concern is making sure that I don't get codeshare metal when doing this (if I am doing it for the experience). I just checked to see about availability for Asiana from NYC and only found 2 options, both flying on Air Canada and Air China metal (using Expedia as that seems to be their booking site?).

If I go for the LH 2 weeks out are these going to open up as Saver awards?

Thanks for the input so far - I checked out a few of them and LH does look excellent.

I guess the other concern is making sure that I don't get codeshare metal when doing this (if I am doing it for the experience). I just checked to see about availability for Asiana from NYC and only found 2 options, both flying on Air Canada and Air China metal (using Expedia as that seems to be their booking site?).

If I go for the LH 2 weeks out are these going to open up as Saver awards?

If you go through Europe, don't you need to redeem 2 awards to get to Asia? I think you have to get the most direct routing. UA has always charged me two awards for going to Asia through Europe as going through the Pacific is considered the most direct route. You should double check that.

If I go for the LH 2 weeks out are these going to open up as Saver awards?

They often do, but there's no way of being sure. It varies a lot by route and season, too -- not to mention holidays (including lunar new year, of course), trade fairs and other events. On some routes it is possible to spot patterns, e.g. "usually some availability on Thursdays" -- but once again these are not guaranteed at all.

Sometimes it makes sense to book an acceptable redemption and accept the costs involved in changing it to a great one nearer the date of travel -- I've recently used UA miles to book an MAA-FRA segment in LH C and will change it to F if availability opens up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nycua1k

If you go through Europe, don't you need to redeem 2 awards to get to Asia? I think you have to get the most direct routing.

A routing like EWR-FRA-PVG isn't really indirect -- and if you search online for award flights over the next couple of weeks you'll see it offered for the same number of miles as other options.

They often do, but there's no way of being sure. It varies a lot by route and season, too -- not to mention holidays (including lunar new year, of course), trade fairs and other events. On some routes it is possible to spot patterns, e.g. "usually some availability on Thursdays" -- but once again these are not guaranteed at all.

Sometimes it makes sense to book an acceptable redemption and accept the costs involved in changing it to a great one nearer the date of travel -- I've recently used UA miles to book an MAA-FRA segment in LH C and will change it to F if availability opens up.

A routing like EWR-FRA-PVG isn't really indirect -- and if you search online for award flights over the next couple of weeks you'll see it offered for the same number of miles as other options.

Appreciated.

I just tried a couple of different dates and didn't see any LH in any class - do you get this by doing a multi city and forcing through FRA?

I just tried a couple of different dates and didn't see any LH in any class - do you get this by doing a multi city and forcing through FRA?

No, just a straightforward search for (in my example) EWR-PVG. The problem is that you'll only see a particular route if there's availability of some kind (which might just be standard awards in coach). If you run through the next few weeks you'll see odd days where routings via ZRH or FRA is available -- but nothing in F. LH has drastically cut TATL F availability in recent months, which doesn't help at all.

It might take a while to find what you're looking for, but if you're flexible (and if you're only looking for one seat) then you've got a fair chance of being successful.

If you go through Europe, don't you need to redeem 2 awards to get to Asia? I think you have to get the most direct routing. UA has always charged me two awards for going to Asia through Europe as going through the Pacific is considered the most direct route. You should double check that.

This is a practice PMUA had. However, since new UA is using CO SHARES system, therefore you can go to Asia from US thru Europe with one award, same amount of miles like going thru TPAC, as PMCO can always use TATL to Asia from US without MPM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UA-NYC

OZ has great F availability, NH not so much (out of NYC that is), nor SQ.

OZ has great F availability but OZ also has the most blackout dates of all *A carriers, and the blackout dates are different from US to ICN and ICN to Asia.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brooklynmatt

I just tried a couple of different dates and didn't see any LH in any class - do you get this by doing a multi city and forcing through FRA?

You won't see anything especially if the LH flight is 744 or 380 unless it is short notice like less than a month out, or more like 2 weeks.

You don't need to do multi city or forcing through FRA, but try to find out all the gateways LH has from US to FRA/MUC first (rule no.1: be flexible on dates, also be flexible on routings, you may need to make an extra stop or two to get what you want), then look for the flights separate like US to FRA/MUC, then FRA/MUC to Asia to see what comes up, if you find something then piece by piece together, rather than just search US-Asia. As the past November I did ORD-HKG thru FRA, NRT, and BKK. There was nothing if I just search for ORD-HKG, and it only shows routing thru TPAC, however when I search for JFK-HKG then tons of flights comes up, and even more options when I search JFK-FRA, then FRA-HKG separately. After I got all the routings for JFK-HKG, then I called UA to find a way to link ORD-JFK together, in the end the agent find me a better routing going thru IAD in UA F instead of LH C JFK-FRA.

TPAC your best options are NH and OZ. NH availability is pretty hard to come by and usually only opens up in the week before departure. If you fancy going via Europe, LX is the best F product IMO however getting availability will be pretty tough. LH is a good compromise because availability close in isn't too bad and also the product is decent.